Brewing

This is where I will document my adventures in home brewing.  Based on my initial attempt, I am sure there will more excitement to share along the way.  Let me go ahead and summarize my first try.

I had talked about home brewing for some time but never acted on it.  My wife surprised me on my birthday with a gift certificate to the local brewing supply store to get me jump started on my future brewing career.  How fantastic is she!?

Before even purchasing any supplies, I got a copy of Charlie Papazian’s “The Complete Joy of Home Brewing” to get a handle on what to expect.  The book has so much good information in it that you should just keep it attached to your hip if you are trying to get in touch with your inner brewmaster.

In short (cutting out the more minute details that I will share with future batches), I went through all of the boiling, adding hops, taking initial readings, etc.  The mixture went into the fermenter, I added the yeast when the temperature came to where it needed to be, and the fermentation hose / blowoff tube was put in place.  That all happened on a Sunday.

Monday came and I went to work.  When I came home for lunch I found that the fermentation hose had blown out and there was a mess.  Lets just say that isn’t good, especially on the first day.  I cleaned up, put the hose back in place, and went back to work only to find the same result when I came home that evening.  In both cases the hose became plugged, pressure built, and a mess was made.  Since most all of the yeast had blown out and surely some contamination had occurred, I didn’t have high expectations from there.

By the next day there was little sign of fermentation, but I decided to replace the tube with the airlock.  I was essentially putting my first batch of beer on life-support.  Few signs of continuing fermentation were noticed over the next few days.  I took readings and they certainly didn’t give me any more reason for hope.  Still I decided to let it sit for another week since I didn’t think it could possibly hurt at that point.

A week later I took a taste of the mixture.  I know the flavor can change a bit as it ages in the bottle for a time before drinking, but this stuff wasn’t going to change enough for me to want to go through the bottling process and eventually drink it.  The decision was made to dump my first batch.

With that failure I learned a few things and will be trying again for sure.

And I have . . .

• Honey Porter – Part 1
• Honey Porter – Part 2
• Honey Porter – Part 3
• Pumpkin Ale – Part 1
• Pumpkin Ale – Part 2
• Pumpkin Ale – Part 3
• IPA and Pale Ale – Part 1
• IPA and Pale Ale – Part 2
• IPA and Pale Ale  – Part 3
• British IPA (half batches) – Part 1
• British IPA (half batches) – Part 2
• British IPA (half batches) – Part 3
  
• Blueberry Chocolate Stout – Part 1
• Blueberry Chocolate Stout – Part 2
  
• Blueberry Chocolate Stout – Part 3
  
• Cherry Dunkelweizen – Part 1
• Cherry Dunkelweizen – Part 2
• Cherry Dunkelweizen – Part 3
• Pomegranate Hefeweizen – Part 1
• Pomegranate Hefeweizen – Part 2
• Pomegranate Hefeweizen – Part 3
• Saison – Part 1
• Saison – Part 2
• Saison – Part 3
• Black Ale – Part 1
• Black Ale – Part 2
• Black Ale – Part 3A and Part 3B
  

My Home Brew Reviews